Hacking the TiVo [Paperback]

William von Hagen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592001114 | ISBN-13: 978-1592001118 | Publication Date: August 11, 2003 | Edition: 1

This book provides a central, readable, and detailed guide to upgrading, maintaining, and enhancing TiVo systems. Most of the procedures described in the book can be done by anyone who is comfortable with opening and upgrading their computer system. Hacking the Tivo explains how to install new hardware, freely obtain the software used in upgrades, and how to upgrade TiVo from any Linux or Windows PC. This book also contains other chapters that provide detailed operating system and hardware upgrade information for more experienced users who are comfortable working with system software and operating systems. The book explains how to obtain the operating system source code, how to build and enhance the operating system, and how to log in on and use the TiVo as a computer system. In addition to the valuable content within this book, with its purchase comes a CD that includes the following: •Utilities for backing up and restoring TiVo disks. •Utilities for creating and blessing new disks for the TiVo. •Utilities for cloning existing TiVo disks. •A utility for enabling backdoors on current TiVo Series 2 systems. •Pre-packaged sets of Linux utilities for Series 1 and Series 2 TiVos. No more searching the web and rolling your own. •Pre-packaged cross-compilers that produce TiVo binaries on Linux systems. Both Series 1 and Series 2 compilers are included. •Popular TiVo-side servers such as TiVoWeb, an FTP daemon, and a Telnet daemon, ready to run on Series 1 and Series 2 TiVos.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William von Hagen has been a Unix system administrator since 1982, working on and maintaining computer hardware, operating systems, and system software. In that time, he has worked as a system administrator, systems programmer, software developer, development manager, computing facilities operations manager, writer, documentation manager, and content manager. He has been a Linux fan since 1993, and has used almost every commercial Linux distribution on the x86, PPC, and SPARC platforms. Bill is an established writer, having written three computer books, including "Hacking the TiVo" (Premier Press, 1592001114). He is well-known as an expert on PowerPC Linux systems (such as the TiVo), having written articles and reviews on this subject for Linux Format magazine (UK) and a column on this topic for Maximum Linux magazine. He has written articles for publications including Linux Magazine, Mac Tech Magazine, Mac Home Magazine, Mac Directory, and many others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (August 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592001114
• ISBN-13: 978-1592001118
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #943,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Leaves you asking more questions than when you started, September 25, 2003

By 

hang10web (Midwest, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hacking the TiVo (Paperback)

Im a big TiVo fan, and was really excited when I started hearing about the whole hacking thing, and was looking forward to the 3 books coming out (this one, the TiVo Hacks book, and the upcoming Hacking TiVo book - which I cant wait to get my hands on.)

When I went through this one I was usually left with more questions than answers. The author is a hardcore UNIX guy, and he, unfortunately, expects that you are too. Im certainly not a newbie, but I am not a UNIX administrator either.

Many times he gets ahead of himself, and describes a hack that involves doing something he hasnt covered yet, which was really frustrating - having to flip back and forth to try to figure it all out.

It is also a little out of date, or just wrong about certain hardware hacks like the TurboNet card for instance, and I was very disappointed that some of the stuff that is supposed to be on the CD isnt there. Having all the software in one place and being able to install it on your TiVo easily is what is really what a good TiVo Cd is about. There are some places on the internet that sell TiVo boot CDs that are better than the one that comes with this book in my opinion.

Ill keep looking for the best TiVo hacking book - so should you.

34 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No, no, no... misses the mark completely., September 12, 2003

By 

Jim Francis "Jim Francis" (Miami/London/Negril) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hacking the TiVo (Paperback)

Poorly put together book. Just one example concerns adding a TurboNet ethernet board to a Tivo Series One. I did this myself last year with no book - only info from the Internet. This book claims you have no choice but to hack the software to accomodate TurboNet when in fact, TurboNet drivers are already built into the latest Tivo software. Also fails to cover using the board with standard "off the shelf" wireless ethernet bridges. I'm not impressed at all. Way too convoluted.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - told me what I wanted to know and more!, March 2, 2004

By 

Joe Wolenski (Cheswick, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hacking the TiVo (Paperback)

I'd seen reviews of multiple books about TiVo, but I have a Series 2, so this was the only book that covered it. It was great! Within a few hours, I'd upgraded my Series 2 to 200+ hours of recording time, and it was easy. Hacking the Series 2s isn't covered in any other TiVo book, and I bought the Keegan book at a bookstore, but it was no help. Von Hagen's books could be a little better organized, but it worked for me. I recommend it highly!